This wild year has been fun for some, flat-out awful for others

If you want to find lots of action, small-cap stocks will not disappoint. Regardless of the market environment, you’ll always find big winners — and, of course, big losers.

It’s the nature of the beast.

Right now, small caps as a whole are getting the short end of the stick. Year-to-date, companies with market-caps of between $100 million and $1 billion are averaging a 3.5% loss, vs. a 15% gain for the S&P 500.

To give you a real sense of the volatility we’ve seen, however, here’s a look at some of the biggest winners and losers of 2013 in the small-cap space, which include two 500%-plus performances and one company that went bust.